Danny's Closet
by prideandfangirling
Summary: Quick little one shot based off the "Monica's Closet" prompt given to me by alittlenutjob on tumblr involving Danny and some comic books.


**A/N: Like the summary says, based off the prompt alittlenutjob on tumblr gave me when I asked for ideas on what to write, which you are all more than welcome to give by the way. All mistakes are my own, I don't own TMP or any characters, etc. Hope you guys enjoy!**

* * *

"Danny, have you seen my other earring? I can't find it and you know it's my favorite. I mean, at least it is this week," Mindy calls out from the bedroom.

He flips the blueberry pancakes on the griddle before answering. "Check under the bed maybe?" Danny looks up, realizing what he's said and runs into the bedroom waving the spatula around. "No, wait! Don't-"

Too late.

There are two open shoeboxes in front of Mindy and she's cradling a third one in her lap with the lid halfway off in her hands. She finishes removing the lid, placing it next to her before staring at the contents and then looking up at Danny. "What the hell?"

"They're, uh, they're comic books, you know? You read them. Totally normal stuff."

Mindy places the box on the floor next to the others and pulls the bed skirt up to look beneath the bed. "Babe, there's like ten more boxes under here and," sitting back up to look at Danny, "no sign of my earring. So are you going to tell me what gives?"

Hiding his face in his hands Danny mumbles something incoherent and then peeks out between fingers at Mindy, who is still waiting on an answer. "I collect comic books."

"Collect or hoard? Because right now I think it might be a hoarding problem."

"I don't have a problem, Min. Some of those are collector's items and can be worth a lot of money someday! Think of it as an investment!" Danny desperately tries. "Two of the ones I bought last year are already worth close to $100 combined so they've basically paid for themselves and then some. There's no telling what the rest will end up being worth." An acrid burning smell wafts into the bedroom and Danny sticks his nose up in the air, trying to place it before remembering the breakfast he was in the process of making. "Shit! The pancakes!"

"Danny! Don't think that this conversation is over because it's not!" Mindy calls out to her retreating boyfriend's back. "Wait, what kind of pancakes? You better not have burned the blueberry ones because you know those are my favorites!"

* * *

Later that day when Mindy knows that Danny is in an appointment and otherwise occupied, she goes into Peter's office, figuring if anyone knows anything about comics it would have to be the Bro Doctor. "Hey, man. Are you busy?"

Peter looks up at Mindy, then back down at the paperwork he was filling out before pushing it to the side and smiling at his newfound interruption. "Not at allll! What can I help you with? Do you need a date?"

"Uh, no. Danny and I have been together for almost a year, thank you very much. I do have a question for you though, what do you know about comic books?"

Placing his hands behind his head and leaning back in his chair Peter takes a moment to think before answering his colleague. "I know a bit. It'll probably surprise you but I wasn't always the amazing bro that you see before you and in my teen years I collected comic books like a dweeb. I thought I could take the comic books and pay for college but it turns out the 500 comic books I had collected were only worth something like $150 and that was because I lucked out by having a few first editions that hadn't been reprinted yet. Why? Don't tell me you were thinking of starting a collection."

"No, not me. I have a, uh, _friend_, who collects them and I was wondering if it was a good hobby or a waste of time. How do I know if there's something worthwhile in a collection?"

"I can take a look at them if you want. I promise I wouldn't lie to you and tell you something is worthless so I can snatch it up and then sell it for more money." Peter points his index and middle finger up, "Bro's honor. But if you're too wary then there's some websites out there that can help you out. Basically if there have been reprints, the comic probably isn't worth much and if there's an e-version of the comic then there's an illegal way to download it so no one is going to want to pay for it if they can get it fo freeee. Know what I mean?"

Mindy chews on her bottom lip, thinking over what Peter had just said before nodding. "Yeah, I get it. Think you can help me go through say, over ten shoeboxes worth of comic books?"

"WHAT!?" Peter yells excitedly, almost tipping his chair back. "Over ten boxes!? That sounds like a gold mine, Mindy! Who knows what you can find in that selection. When can I start?"

Raising an eyebrow Mindy stares at Peter. "Okay, you just got way too excited over some picture books and this has to be a secret, you hear me? No one can know about this and I trust you to not screw me over out of some comic that's worth a lot of money, understand?"

"Yeah, yeah, course I do. I wouldn't do anything like that to you, not to a fellow comic nerd."

"No, they're not my comic books. Oh, whatever. I'll see you at my place after work. Deal?"

* * *

"Hey, babe! Come on in, dinner's almost done." Mindy gives Danny a quick kiss before heading into her kitchen, leaving him to close the door and follow her.

"Mindy, you don't cook."

"No, but see there's this crazy thing where I can give people money and they cook the food for me and then I can take it home to put on plates and it's almost like I cooked it," Mindy explains, popping off the plastic lid from one container. "I hope you're in the mood for Thai."

Danny comes up behind Mindy, putting his arms around her waist and pressing his lips against her neck. "I was thinking more Indian but I'm sure Thai food will be great. Why are you so dressed up though? It's Saturday and I know you didn't have any appointments today. You also usually tend to take your heels off the moment you get inside your apartment yet here you are wearing them."

"What? I can't dress up for my man every once in awhile?" Mindy asks, turning around to face Danny.

"Alright," Danny says, crossing his arms and looking intently at Mindy, "what did you do?"

"Nothing! Why do you always assume I did something when I dress up?" Her glasses have slid down her nose when she was plating their dinner so Mindy pushes them back up before continuing. "I really can't just look nice for you for the hell of it?"

"No, because you don't tend to dress up specifically for me unless you're trying to use your womanly wiles in some manipulative attempt, not that I mind," Danny says, smiling. "So I repeat: what did you do?"

Mindy sighs. "You know your comic book collection?"

Danny's smile disappears. "What did you do?"

"Nothing! I just sort of got them appraised and man, babe, did you know you had a lot of comics? I stopped counting when it got to over a thousand-"

"Mindy. What. Did. You. Do."

"You've said that like four times now! I had someone look over them so I could know how much everything was worth! That's all! But…"

"But what?" Danny begs. "Did you sell them!?"

"No! They're all still in their boxes and under your bed just like you left them. I just went and found out how much they were worth and it seems that out of over a thousand comics only twenty are worth more than $5. The most is valuable one you have is the one based off the video game, Injustice something or another?"

Danny visibly relaxes and lets out a deep sigh. "It's called 'Injustice: Gods Among Us.' How much is it?"

"Forty bucks."

"That's it?!"

"Danny, why are these comics so important to you? It can't be the money because you're not getting much back from it. There has to be a reason, babe."

"It was my coping mechanism after my dad left," Danny begins, shrugging. "I was thirteen and I needed someone to look up to so superheroes seemed the way to go. After awhile it just became habit to keep buying new issues and one day I saw a news report about how comics could be worth something so I decided to save them."

"Really? I'm sorry, I didn't know that. I'm so glad I didn't take Peter up on his offer to buy your collection then." Danny's eyes grow wide and he opens his mouth to say something so Mindy keeps talking. "Calm down, he doesn't know it was your collection. He thought it was mine until I corrected him and said it was Rishi's. I told you, your comic books are safe and sound, hiding in their boxes, under your bed. I wouldn't do that to you, Danny. And for the record, you can keep collecting your comics but if we end up on some hoarding reality show because your little hobby takes up 80% of the space in our house then I'm giving them away. For free."

"Thanks, Min. I'm sorry for being dramatic."

"Psh!" Mindy says, waving off Danny's apology. "Hey, who is your favorite superhero?"

"Easy. It's Captain America."

Mindy stares at Danny. "Seriously? It's not Superman? But it's always Superman!"

Danny chuckles. "Captain America is the epitome of the American spirit and he has amazing morals! Why would you think I would ever choose someone other than Captain America?"

"Because, Danny," Mindy begins, unbuttoning her white button down shirt, "people always choose Superman or Batman and you always complain about how whiny Batman is." Since the button down is tucked inside her black skirt and she's wearing suspenders, Mindy pulls what she can to the sides, revealing the Superman shirt underneath. "I dressed up as Clark Kent for you, weirdo. How was I to know my boyfriend would be the only person to choose Captain America over Superman?"

Grabbing her by the suspenders, Danny pulls her towards him. "Have I told you how much I love you lately?"

"Hmm, I think it's been a few hours at least."

Danny kisses one corner of Mindy's mouth before moving to the other corner where he places another kiss. "Love you," he murmurs against her lips as he kisses her for a third time.

"And I love you," Mindy replies, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the bedroom, dinner forgotten on the kitchen island. "You did say you were in the mood for Indian, right?"


End file.
